Why no Electric starter til 1975?

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john robert bould said:
Something is wrong with my Mk3 ,the compression is fearful...i am 13 stone and have a hard time kicking the motor over..so its the button..untill the electrics weaken.
Went over to see my grandson...his dad said " show him how you used to kick start these old bike's grandad" Grandad!!!! so i had to .didnt i? Well the beast just had other ideas...sweat! But i did spring her into life, well the grandon was well impressed with gran par, not sure the old knee was :lol:
I have had many old bikes, and still own a 500 venom clubman , but the commando as more comp, [410cc] i can stand on the kicker for 3-4 seconds , can the kick ratio be poorly designed? its a genuine 6000 miles from new ,so just run in?
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Technique. Get the piston past TDC and then you shouldn't need to stand on it.
 
You sure about that past TDC technique, Dave? Any kickstart bike I've started and I've started them for 56 years, I brought them up on compression before I give it what for.
 
JimC said:
You sure about that past TDC technique, Dave? Any kickstart bike I've started and I've started them for 56 years, I brought them up on compression before I give it what for.
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You can do it anyway you want.
 
wakeup said:
DonOR said:
Thats why the commando never needed an electric starter.... its a man's machine. a 5'-2" 105lb 20 year old japanese male would have a hell of a time starting this little monster. a matter of macho pride, as with a number or other characteristics of our bikes.
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When I had my 650SS, which had 9:1 pistons etc etc, my wife who at the time was 5'2" and weighed 100lbs could not only start it but ride it pretty well. You don't have to be big strong and macho to start a Commando. You just have to have the right technique.
cheers
wakeup
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She is exceptional, and definitely a keeper!
 
I might have been a bit hard on young people. Over the years we've had profiteers who have scoured Australia for old bikes to sell. There are limits to the supply. Also our governments have discouraged constructors by requiring engineers' certificates for anything unusual to be used on public roads . When I first came to Benalla, I started the Winton Motorcycle Club - the kids here all ride shiny new MX bikes , and most of them cannot even change a brake cable without help. To build a bike like my Seeley is beyond their imagination. Even the guys who were born in the 70s are limited in their outlook. I brought one of the young mechanical engineers home from our local defence factory, and showed him my bike. All he could say was 'I'm very impressed'. What worries me is that I know what has gone on before my time. The old saying 'what man has built, man can build again' might be true- we see Molnar Manxes come out of Europe. However here in Australia, we've declined to a situation where nobody does anything really constructive of their own volition. I think what is required is a mindset which includes and encourages constructors' classes in modern car and bike racing . And as far as that goes, I still wonder why someone hasn't built a road race frame for those Chinese 125cc (Honda CT110) clones - there is so much hot-up gear for them.
 
Hey Ludwig, thanks for the kind words!!!

Nortons Live! I mean literally, they're Alive!


Speakin of 5'2" for those who haven't seen "Linda's Norton" here's the link. I always loved this video although someone's gone and messed it up a bit with a bunch of effects from an edit program. I liked the 1st versions with just the straight goods.

http://youtu.be/8M_R6u8Y1qM
 
acotrel said:
The main reason that anyone ever owns a commando is to grab hold of a piece of our past. The early 70s was a period of great change. In Australia we started dumbing down our education system and conditioning people to accept the plastic society. As evidence - the guys on this forum who cannot kick-start their bikes. They are the social product of the intent of globalization.
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Nater_Potater said:
+1 on that. I grew up around British singles and twins, and none of them had electric starts. You learned how to read what the engine needed by the way it responded to the sometimes feeble stomping-down on the lever. I have a co-worker who walks up to his H-D, turns on the key. and stabs a button. Fuel injection, throttle-by-wire, no thought, no "Is it hot enough to not use the choke?" He wants to ride the Norton. "Sure. First, you have to start it." "Where's the key?" FAIL!
For me, mastering the starting and riding of a Norton (or any older bike, for that matter) brings the same elation as the first time you can smoothly ride a bicycle with no hands. It's like another plateau, something that, I fear, is lost, save for the eccentric that hangs on to such things for reasons that are equally outmoded. At the ripe old age of 53, I can only assume my kickstart time is short, but, in the meantime, I'll take a certain smug satisfaction in being able to chew my own food and start my own motorcyle.
Nathan
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By eck, we 'ad it tough ...

I used to 'ave to get up half an hour before I went to bed and kick start me Dad's Norton Commando ... with me teeth. He'd ride it a thousand miles to work down t' mine. When 'e came 'ome, I'd 'ave to change t' oil, and drink t' old oil for me supper, and grease t' chain wi' t' grease off me sandwiches that I couldn't eat for me dinner. Then me Dad would thrash us to sleep w' the belt drive ...

And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.

They won't! .... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXI8PN-ZGkI&feature=player_detailpage&list=PL2A66E96E604C87C8
 
Corona850 said:
By eck, we 'ad it tough ...

I used to 'ave to get up half an hour before I went to bed and kick start me Dad's Norton Commando ... with me teeth. He'd ride it a thousand miles to work down t' mine. When 'e came 'ome, I'd 'ave to change t' oil, and drink t' old oil for me supper, and grease t' chain wi' t' grease off me sandwiches that I couldn't eat for me dinner. Then me Dad would thrash us to sleep w' the belt drive ...

And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.

They won't!
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Thank you. That's a corker.
The Four Yorkshiremen skit always brings a smile to face. Sometimes it just pops into me 'ed for no apparent reason.
I'll 'ave to dig out t' Live at Drury Lane album now.
Then go and fire up t' Commando.

Cheers
Martin
 
Here, in the U.S., we older folks had to walk five miles to school. Uphill, each way!
 
Don't forget about the snow and sleet and 130 degree weather while walking up them hills!
 
Personally I don't think Norton thought that much about Commando as started out and finished as a stop gap cycle till the rotary of something else modern was developed. They only did minimum investment mostly thinking it wasted till something more new age could be afforded.

Personally I think those born in late 40's into the 50's got the best of all times in human history, didn't have to work fields all summer every summer, didn't have to go though depression era or WW's rationing, gas was cheap as water and w/o the current monitoring devices could get away with quite a lot and told we'd all have flying cars in our garages and inflation was pretty low.

Personally I think Commando are a real man's cycle both in the forces to start and the ability to fix and figure out issues and enough success to be able to afford the time and money they suck and suck and suck.

We lucked out to have a wonder bike so so many will tell us how much involved or meant to them back when and now a real golden age of parts and advice and community. I for one am sure going to do my part in getting some young whipper snappers to agree about what the funnest handler or just another road appliance. I love the reactions when I yell out to watching riders Hey ya know what them thumb commensors are known for, lowering one IQ, then one step on start and off. Some old stuff ain't been topped yet.

Why no Electric starter til 1975?

Why no Electric starter til 1975?
 
bwolfie said:
Don't forget about the snow and sleet and 130 degree weather while walking up them hills!
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Snow, sleet and 130º weather, all at the same time. Right? That was BCC (before climate change).
 
acotrel said:
The old saying 'what man has built, man can build again'
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That kinds of reminds me of an old supervisor saying while I was an apprentice "If it was made by man it can be fixed by man" . Has stuck with me all the time and great self encouragement troubleshooting issues on the bikes or at work.
Someone else said too about kicking with a bunch of Harleys nearby? Well I always take the Commando on bike runs and half way through the day most guys have spoken to me about it. They've either had one or want one.
 
RennieK said:
One of the 1st times I really saw a motorcycle, I mean up close where you could feel it, smell it and what ever else it did to you if you were close enough I was about 10 and a bunch of bikers were waiting on their buddy to get his motor running. This was the 60's and I think it was an Indian, I remember the fenders and the flat head's fins. These bikers were the real deal, they looked like a bunch of savages. Me and a couple friends saw the motorcycles and ran over to get a better look. We stood there with mouths open and eyes gapeing as this guy kicked away on this monstrosity until it fired up and they all roared off. There was something about kicking a machine over to bring it to life that I saw there that made that experience different from any other machine my dad owned or you saw anywhere. It gave a motorcycle a personality no other motor vehicle came close to. When I bought my 1st bike years later you can bet it was a kick start and when the Japanese bikes came out with their electric starts it sickened me. Motorcycles were losing something of their character. Now adays you can be parked with 1/2 dozen harleys and be the only one that kicks ass with kick start klass :wink: and the on lookers seem to take notice too, something people just don't see much of anymore. My knees are going to have to get a lot worse before I breakdown and use an electric start... at least in public.
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RennieK
Right On Brother! With me I was squinting over the doorsill of my dad's Pickup truck when we stopped for gas. I might have been 8 something. And this biker dude was getting gas and then kicked it over and off he goes. I think it was a BSA as I remember alot of chrome on the tank. Burns a hole in the retina your Minds eye.
Cheers,
Thomas
CNN
 
Im 115 and I have never had a problem.

.....I live on a hill. :)
 
On the "old vs young" thing, when I was about 18/19 in the mid 60s, my mate and I were both apprentices in the Drawing Office. My mates mentor seemed really old to us, he must have been late 30s early 40s, smoked a pipe, leather elbow patches, glasses, you get the picture. Roy and I were talking about motorbikes being exciting. Old Bloke chipped in with, "you youngsters don't know the meaning of exciting; exciting is flying a Typhoon at 300 knots across the (English) Channel so low that the prop kicks up spray from the wave tops, or flying the same aircraft under power lines......
Then somewhat later, like 10 years ago, I had the good fortune to work with a second generation Italian young (35ish) lady. She reckoned that the 60s, when I grew up had the best drugs, best s*x, best music. I couldn't disagree!!
DonOR said:
She is exceptional, and definitely a keeper!
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Yes DonOR she is, been married 38 years now.

cheers
wakeup
 
mike996 said:
"Where are our replacements coming from when we are gone ?
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Honestly.......... once I'm gone, I ain't going to care one bit what anyone does.

FWIW - I've owned my MK3 for 20 years now and have used the electric starter all about a half a dozen times.
I kick it.
 
When our kids returned from Vietnam, some of them went to the Returned Services League clubs. The old guys told them that their war wasn't a real one. 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder' ? However I really wonder about the guys w ho flew Typhoons into battle, I think it would be a worry. When I was a kid, I spoke to a couple of guys who were in the trenches in France in WW1. I still think we were very lucky, and we've seen the best of times. I think Alvin Toffler might have been correct about 'future shock'. I'm optimistic even though the signs are not good - the individual is still usually a good person
 
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